>>23
I read your message in the morning and thought about it all day. I enjoy hearing another perspective on these things and it allows me to more deeply reflect on my own life.

I have certainly been lucky to have an overlap between my hobbies and my work, and although my work is work, it has its ups and downs, because it is connected to my hobbies, my hobbies go with it. It is both a blessing and a curse to have this overlap because it makes the good days very nice, but when work gets busy or stressful or overwhelming my hobby feels the same to me. I feel as though I get subsumed into a temporary paralysis of both on these occasions where I just have to push through at work and abandon my hobby for a little bit while I work to regain interest. I have been working on decoupling these two parts of my life without losing either one of them and part of that tricky decoupling led me to these questions.

When you talk about it being natural for people to have some sort of work to do in their lives, I wonder if it is not just about doing work in one's life but with one's life. I don't merely want to bide my precious time on Earth, but leave a positive impact even if the only people who will remember are my descendants and even if my impact is all that is left. Maybe that is a bit vain and maybe that is putting too much focus on work so I digress.

I can not speak for your situation, but what if a bit more idleness is the solution. We have been conditioned to see everything in terms of its products and to value things based on the valued gained for us. I don't mean to imply that one should quit work because work is important to supply oneself and people they love with a good life, but what if spending time alone or with others in idleness is part of what could be missing. I believe there can be a balance between ensuring future comforts though an uncomfortable present and reveling in the present and I personally am still looking for that balance in my life.

What do you think?